Social networks have become pervasive and diverse in modern society. Indeed, with the leading social networking service serving over one billion users worldwide, development of social networks has progressed quickly, for example, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Indeed, with the maturing of the social network market, more use specific social networks have been deployed, such as Twitter (short text based) and Instagram (picture based).
One specific type of social network is the business-oriented social network, for example, LinkedIn, Viadeo, and Xing. One relatively unique feature with the business-oriented social networks is access to communication to other non-connected members (i.e. non-friends). Indeed, with LinkedIn, unfettered communication to other non-connected members is provided on a subscription fee basis. A potential drawback to this approach is that non-connected members receiving unsolicited messages may still ignore the message, reducing the incentive to become a subscribing member of the business-oriented social network.